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I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

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Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#331

Post by watwut »

outside1234 wrote: post #145
ninalanyon wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading these comments about Shakespeare makes me think that most of you had terrible teachers of Eng. Lit. Plays, all of them not just Shakespeare, are written to be performed. If your teachers didn't have you perform plays and also watch professional and amateur performances they were derelict in their duties as teachers. Performance isn't just rote recitation.

The teacher makes a huge difference. My kids teacher somehow made The Odyssey a page turner for them and when the movie came out they were able to critique and delta the way the movie and book portrayed Odysseus. I was pretty impressed, because like the parent, The Odyssey and Shakespeare was a form of torture when I was in school.

The Odyssey is a page turner, when you distill it to few action chapters and stories it has. Majority of the Odyssey is not really actiony tho.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#332

Post by exmadscientist »

jihadjihad wrote: post #34
exmadscientist wrote: post #18

> Why this word, this scene, this character, and not some other one? The "why this not that , even when it looks like that would do just fine" style of differential analysis is an exquisitely powerful analytical tool. Asking this question is probably the single most powerful method I know of to generate deep thought, in absolutely any aspect of life. If you haven't tried it... go for it! (Sample question: why'd I cho…

> Is this going to be the best thing I read all month or all decade? Many times it is only possible to know that post hoc . There are several books I've read that, in the moment of completing them, stand as the best I'd read in the past few years. Others I finished and figured I'd never think of them past the current month. But books and their impact upon you can be surprising sometimes. There are some books I think…

That's part of why I like the fuzziness. And why it's a really great system looking back retrospectively. I don't keep a reading journal, but if I glance over physical books in my house or reading history on my ereader, rankings of past things read get really clear really fast.

As you said it can be kind of surprising!

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#333

Post by exmadscientist »

Agentlien wrote: post #307
exmadscientist wrote: post #18

> Why this word, this scene, this character, and not some other one? The "why this not that , even when it looks like that would do just fine" style of differential analysis is an exquisitely powerful analytical tool. Asking this question is probably the single most powerful method I know of to generate deep thought, in absolutely any aspect of life. If you haven't tried it... go for it! (Sample question: why'd I cho…

I have had similar thoughts about "x of the week/month/year". But every now and then there's a dirge or deluge of good things and years aren't even comparable because the fourth best thing one year might have been the number one in any other year of the decade. I think a good example for me personally is 2019 in music. And I assume most people reading this list will shake their head at my (in their view) poor taste.…

The nice thing about "ranking" stuff for yourself and not for anyone else is that some years can have three "best of the year" and some can have none. Embrace the fuzziness inherent in the system.

Because, man, some years really were just that good.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#334

Post by actionfromafar »

tcmart14 wrote: post #215
dredmorbius wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a similar experience, with the same play, but in an absolutely minimalist setting . No sets, the only props were a few chairs, and costumes were the same white slacks and smock worn by all the players. And it absolutely worked. This wasn't long after my secondary education --- I'd just started uni. But enough had happened that I got it. As I've commented recently, even as an excellent reader , there's someth…

I think that is one thing about trying to study Shakespeare in class that can be improved. The class shouldn't just be taking turns saying the lines out loud. But you don't need a full theatrical production either or memorize lines. Read the lines with some light acting out of scenes with just the tables, chairs, and a small bit of imagination could be the class room study impactful.

In retrospect, I think I have to apologize to my English teacher. I thought it was too ambitious having the class put on a Shakespeare play. But it was fun and we apparently learned a lot.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#335

Post by watwut »

fluoridation wrote: post #81
thfuran wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s certainly true that an adult would tend to have more additional knowledge and be better able to understand a lot of writing, but if you avoid exposing kids to anything they don’t have total understanding of the context of, you won’t really be able to teach them anything. Discussing books can help provide some of that context they’re missing. It’s probably fine to teach arithmetic before algebraic number theory t…

I'm honestly of the opinion that teaching children arithmetic (as in, having them perform arithmetic algorithms) is not just a complete waste of time, but actually detrimental as it sours them to the idea of anything labeled "mathematics".

> but actually detrimental as it sours them to the idea of anything labeled "mathematics".

Except it does not. Or, maybe some kids do build up lifetime hatred of math due to arithmetic. But it is not what happened with my kids, their friends, me myself back then or my friends.

The thing that pushes people to dislike math is when abstract concepts are taught too soon, before the brain develops the abstract thinking. Or too fast, or in a bad way.

But where I have seen dislike of math. it was not arithmetic part of it. It was seemingly magic incomprehensible concepts later on.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#336

Post by kristianp »

gricardo99 wrote: post #270

It was such a joy to read something clearly written by a human, for humans, by someone who takes pride and spends effort in their writing. Reading this article felt like a breath of fresh air, like a vice had been released from my head. Not just the broader point about our increasingly slop-filled world resonated with me, but the writing itself felt like it just flows effortlessly. I guess I’ve been suffering for too…

Agreed. The AI news cycle is constant and promises the eventual end to human usefulness. I feel like one day we'll be but pets to the machines (like those in Iain M. Banks' culture novels), but real life won't be a communist utopia like his novels.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#337

Post by xandrius »

exmadscientist wrote: post #18

> Why this word, this scene, this character, and not some other one? The "why this not that , even when it looks like that would do just fine" style of differential analysis is an exquisitely powerful analytical tool. Asking this question is probably the single most powerful method I know of to generate deep thought, in absolutely any aspect of life. If you haven't tried it... go for it! (Sample question: why'd I cho…

Just fyi, you can take your time-based rating and fit it the 5-stars system of the club.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#338

Post by xandrius »

beacon294 wrote: post #326

What a good article, I really love the punchline at the end. If you skim the article, you can't even tell it's there. That certainly increased the thickness of the article, for me.

Skimming Adam's articles should come with a fine and some time in.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#339

Post by djeastm »

criddell wrote: post #262
Avicebron wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I would necessarily agree with "strange torture" more like "sore muscles from exercising mental muscles". Yes I remember hating The Great Gatsby when I was 14 and having to read it critically in school, I sure didn't have a lot context, but I remember having to do it, and I can look back after years of secondary and post secondary schooling and appreciate the exercise. I think we should be much denser an…

Gatsby is one of those books I hated in high school. A few years ago I read it again and confirmed it’s a terrible book filled with shallow characters living boring lives doing nothing of interest to me. My opinion of 1984 also dropped when I reread it. Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, Canticle for Leibowitz, The Chrysalids, and Lost Horizon are all books I liked more when I reread them as an adult.

English teachers aren't really there to provide you books you'll "like" or else they'd just be assigning the latest teen melodrama. They're instructing you on the different ways the English language has been used throughout its history and give you practice in analyzing it.

The Great Gatsby has themes about the American Dream, wealth, social class, love, ambition, and the gap between appearance and reality. Symbolism is easily teachable in the book, as well. And it's short, with relatively simple language and simple characters, which makes it a practical book for students.

Re: I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers

#340

Post by rsynnott »

For those who enjoy the Bosch painting, there’s this fun robot, which posts random crops of it daily: https://bsky.app/profile/boschbot.bsky.social

It’s been going years now, still hasn’t run out (though it seems to have added a few of his other pieces recently).

There’s a Twitter version too, but I think it broke when Musk screwed up the api; don’t have an account to check.

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